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. 2023 Apr 3;76(7):1322-1327.
doi: 10.1093/cid/ciac862.

Medical Student Debt and the US Infectious Diseases Workforce

Amir M Mohareb  1   2 , Tyler S Brown  1   2   3
Affiliations

Medical Student Debt and the US Infectious Diseases Workforce

Amir M Mohareb et al. Clin Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Student debt in the United States is at historically high levels and poses an excessive burden on medical graduates. Studies suggest that financial limitations dissuade some medical trainees from pursuing careers in infectious diseases (ID) and other cognitive specialties, despite their interest in the subject matter. Addressing student debt may have a transformative impact on ID recruitment, diversification of the ID workforce, and contributions of ID physicians to underserved public health needs. Relief of student debt also has the potential to narrow the racial wealth gap because nonwhite students are more likely to finance their postsecondary education, including medical school, with student loans, yet they have a lower earning potential following graduation. An executive order from the Biden-Harris administration announced in August 2022 presents a first step toward student debt relief, but the policy would need to be expanded in volume and scope to effectively achieve these goals.

Keywords: equity; infectious diseases; recruitment; student debt; workforce.

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Conflict of interest statement

Potential conflicts of interest . A. M. M. reports grants or contracts outside of the submitted work from National Institutes of Health (NIH; grant K01AI166126), the Charles A. King Trust Research Fellowship, the Massachusetts General Hospital Fund for Medical Discovery (NIH grant T32 AI007433), and Harvard University Center for AIDS Research, an NIH-funded program (P30 AI060354), which is supported by the following NIH Co-Funding and Participating Institutes and Centers: the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Cancer Institute, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the National Institute of Nursing Research, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, Fogarty International Center, and the Office of AIDS Research. T. S. B. reports grants or contracts outside of the submitted work from the NIAID, NIH (grant K08AI166125) and travel funds for an in-person presentation at an NIH scientific conference (NIH RePORT 2022 annual meeting).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Median student debt for indebted medical school graduates in the United States, 1992–2019. Data are shown in current currency (diamonds) and inflation-adjusted 2022 US dollars (circles). Source: Association of American Medical Colleges [3, 24].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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